How to Build a $500 Gaming Machine
bacterial_pus writes "Tom's Hardware has a very interesting article on how to build a $500 gaming rig. 'Instead of the newest killer rig from Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Voodoo, etc... how about a system for the rest of us with a realistic budget starting from scratch? We set out to build a reasonable gaming system that will get you through today's game titles without breaking the bank for around $500.'"
The final cost of this machine is more like around $570, and then when you include the shipping on the parts you bought online... Well... I'd say it comes to more like $600. (Possibly more?)
Still... A good guide for the newbies to budget PC design. This article really makes me feel outdated with my Geforce FX 5600 and Athlon 2800+... I guess I definitely don't have a decent rig for most modern games. But that's ok because I don't play any modern games.
BTW anyone know a good way to avoid the annoying linkified ads in firefox? I just used links2. All those ads really slow down my browsing experience.
ASRock motherboard (AMD Socket 939, PCI Express/AGP, SATA2) - $69
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Processor (1.8GHz, boxed CPU kit with cooler) - $146
eVGA's nVidia GeForce 6600 (256MB, AGP) - $113
512MB Corsair Value Select (PC3200, dual-channel DDR400 RAM) - $52
80GB Western Digital Caviar SE hard drive (WD800JD, SATA 150, 8MB cache, 7200rpm) - $57.50
DVD-ROM from LiteOn (SOHD-16P9SBLK, 16x read) - $20
330W PSU from Seasonic (S12-330, ATX 12V) - $59